Grantee Research Project Results

1999 Progress Report: Detecting Fecal Contamination and Its Sources in Water and Watersheds

EPA Grant Number: R824782
Title: Detecting Fecal Contamination and Its Sources in Water and Watersheds
Investigators: Sobsey, Mark D.
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: October 1, 1995 through October 31, 1998
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 1998 through October 31, 1999
Project Amount: $400,000
RFA: Water and Watersheds (1995) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Water

Objective:

The objectives of this research are to develop, evaluate, and apply new and improved methods to detect, quantify, and distinguish between human and animal fecal contamination in watersheds and aquifers to trace and identify fecal contamination sources.

Progress Summary:

During this reporting period, progress was made in developing new and improved methods to recover and detect enteric microbial pathogens and indicators in water and wastes, with particular emphasis on the recovery of all microbes from water by hollow fiber ultrafiltration, and the detection and quantitation of somatic and male-specific coliphages and the potentially pathogenic bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica. The methods to detect pathogens and indicators developed in this study were successfully applied to the detection and characterization of pathogens and indicators and the identification of their fecal waste sources in selected watersheds and aquifers. Ultrafiltration using inexpensive, self-contained, disposable, hollow-fiber filter units was further evaluated for the concentration of all classes of enteric microbes (parasites, bacteria, and viruses) from water. Laboratory culture experiments were conducted to identify the best methods to recover, isolate, and quantify Yersinia enterocolitica in water and wastes. Several new and improved methods were developed and evaluated to detect and quantify somatic and male-specific coliphages in water. The methods developed and evaluated in this study to detect coliphages in water are becoming the basis of standard U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) methods to detect coliphages in groundwater and referred to as Method 1601. A draft version of this method is to be available in early 1999. These methods were used to detect, quantify, characterize, and determine the fecal waste sources of coliphages in surface waters of two watersheds and in the surface water and groundwater of a third watershed. In two watersheds, concentrations of bacterial and viral indicators of fecal contamination were elevated about 10- to 100-fold at stations impacted by known sources of human and agriculture animal wastes. Somatic and male-specific coliphages having properties consistent with a fecal origin were sometimes detected in groundwaters and almost always detected in overlying, infiltrating, fecally contaminated surface waters and sewage. Grouping of male-specific RNA coliphages made it possible to distinguish between human and animals sources of fecal contamination in the surface waters and groundwaters of the watersheds and aquifers studied. Dry and wet (storm event) sampling and analysis of enteric bacteria and coliphages in the surface waters of a watershed impacted by known sources of human and animal fecal contamination showed that levels of bacterial and viral indicators were elevated above background levels at stations near waste sources, and they further increased dramatically (100-1,000 times) during wet weather (rain storm) events. Current best management practices (BMPs) for human and agriculture animal wastes are unable to prevent such fecal contamination.

Future Activities:

We will continue to refine methods to detect, quantify, characterize, and identify sources of microbial pathogens and indicators of human and animal fecal contamination in water and wastes.

We also will continue to monitor and trace sources of fecal contamination in watersheds and aquifers impacted by human and animal fecal waste sources. We will estimate total waste loads of microbial contaminants in watersheds and aquifers on the basis of microbial concentrations in water and wastes, stream flows, and waste loads (wastewater discharges and runoff flows) during dry and wet weather. Future Activities stuff goes here!!!

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 14 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

water, drinking water, watersheds, risk assessment, health effects, human health, mammalian, organism, pathogens, bacteria, discharge, ecosystem, indicators, aquatic, biology, ecology, epidemiology, monitoring, analytical, measurement methods., Health, RFA, Scientific Discipline, PHYSICAL ASPECTS, Water, Physical Processes, Risk Assessments, Biology, Watersheds, Environmental Chemistry, Hydrology, Drinking Water, Water & Watershed, contaminant transport, detecting fecal matter, municipal sewage effluent, infectious organisms, municipal supply watershed, microbial risk management, pathogens, monitoring, fecal contamination, exposure, other - risk assessment, waterborne disease, microbial pathogens, human health risk, cryptosporidium, salmonella, aquatic ecosystems, agricultural watershed, agricultural waste

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.